Meet the 2023-2024 Surgical Fellow Dr. Marion (Mengyuan) Liu

Marion (Mengyuan) Liu, MD | Kristen Ann Carr Fund Surgical Fellow

Marion (Mengyuan) Liu, MD, is currently a second-year surgical oncology fellow and the chief fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She received her undergraduate degree in molecular cellular biology from Harvard College and her medical degree from the University of Illinois Chicago. She completed her general surgery residency training at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and served as administrative chief resident. During her residency Dr. Liu spent two years doing molecular and immunology research under the mentorship of Ronald DeMatteo, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania studying the most common human sarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

Current Research

Dr. Liu’s research centers on understanding how the immune system restrains metastases in patients who have only oligometastatic disease, or isolated metastases. Oligometastatic disease is a unique entity because the tumor must have some aggressive features to travel to a site outside the local environment, yet not be so aggressive as to result in diffuse disease in multiple sites. Currently, the best ways to determine oligometastases are to waiting and see if more metastases develop or observe the recurrence-free interval after surgical resection. Dr. Liu would like to understand if there are molecular or immune hallmarks that can define these oligometastases. The goal of this research is twofold: First, it will allow surgeons to better select patients who may benefit from aggressive resection of metastases. Second, understanding the interplay between host and tumor immunology in oligometastases may lead to novel therapeutics that promote the oligometastatic state.